John\u2019s company (he did eventually get around to the company) is clearly the \u201cbest solution.\u201d He\u2019s proven his superiority by bashing competitor after competitor (by name) without talking about either Buddy\u2019s needs or his own capabilities.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nLest you begin to think that these events are more akin to a carnival than the heavy investment that tradeshow\/conference participation or attendance warrants, rest assured that there are plenty of great opportunities to generate revenue. As a matter of fact, the more Suzy\u2019s and Johns, the better off the rest of us are.<\/p>\n
Friends, don\u2019t be Suzy or John. The next time you are working with a prospect, in the early stages of the sales cycle, take the time to ask, listen and guide the conversation. As for Suzy\u2019s prospect, Mark, let\u2019s just say that he got out of there quicker than the guy in the row behind you when the flight attendants signal that the plane has come to a complete stop at the gate. John\u2019s guy, Buddy, well, he was in no hurry to disengage from John. Buddy wants to hang out with the big dogs even if the dog really is a dog. And John, oh he definitely does not want the conversation to end because as long as he\u2019s got an audience, he can talk about his favorite thing in the whole world, himself. Even if that means spending an hour talking to Buddy. Have a goal and be prepared to disengage if there is no opportunity. It\u2019s ok. Really it is.<\/p>\n
Are these true stories? Yes. Are they fair depictions of the profession of revenue generation? Of course not, they merely serve to remind us of paths to not go down. Now, I\u2019m not as loud as Suzy or as arrogant as John, but I would like to gently offer up a little advice for your consideration before your next interaction with a prospect. Take the time to uncover some idea of what is challenging them (corporately and individually). Invest some time in getting to understand their world (even if you think you know it). You can do this by:<\/p>\n
Engaging \u2013 ask questions.<\/p>\n
Sharing \u2013 stories about what you do for others.<\/p>\n
Listening \u2013 actively make sure you really understand what they are, and are not, saying.<\/p>\n
Asking some more \u2013 ask a few more follow up questions.<\/p>\n
Sharing some more \u2013 share some proof of any claims you make.<\/p>\n
Arranging \u2013 arrange mutually agreed upon next steps.<\/p>\n
And don\u2019t be the rep that specializes in \u201cYell and Tell\u201d or \u201cHow Do You Like Me So Far.\u201d The prospect cares a lot more about themself than they do about you, so focus your conversation accordingly.<\/p>\n
Disclaimer: Incidents are real. Names are changed\u2026I think. If any of the participants were named Suzy, John, Mark or Buddy, I did not know it. As far as John and Buddy, I know those weren\u2019t their real names because I recognized them both and yes, I was one of the competitors John was bashing. For some reason that made me smile. I told you, this stuff is funny. And sad. And funny. And sad.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tradeshows and conferences. For that perfect combination of \u201centertainment and education,\u201d you really can\u2019t beat tradeshows and conferences. Bring a few thousand (or more) salespeople together with a few hundred (or less, or a lot less) potential prospects and the show is a pretty good one. Similar to what you might witness when one ambulance pulls up in front of a building full of lawyers. If you take the time and give yourself permission to be a spectator vs. participant just for a little while, tradeshows\/conferences can be pretty entertaining. And sad. Mostly funny. But sad. But funny\u2026 Don\u2019t misunderstand; I take the revenue creation part of these events very seriously. If all I wanted was entertainment and education, I would save my money and head over to the neighborhood park to watch four year olds show all of us hotshot sales pros how to really close deals and do it without long sales cycles. But given that tradeshows\/conferences are intended to have some level of education, it doesn\u2019t hurt to be on the lookout for some entertainment at the same time. And friends, at any show, there is no shortage of humor and learning opportunities. They probably won\u2019t be in the education sessions, but they won\u2019t be too hard to find either. Recently I spent a couple of days at a tradeshow. I wish I could say \u201cI invested a couple of days,\u201d but \u201cspent\u201d is probably more accurate. The educational sessions I attended (where my prospects were and therefore where I was) were pretty good. The networking opportunities (which was not where my prospects were) were numerous and the chance to observe other revenue generators was fantastic. Whenever I have free time at shows and conference events, I spend a little time shifting roles from \u201cparticipant\u201d to \u201cobserver\u201d for a bit. My physical observation areas (labs) fall into these categories: 1) The bar 2) The show floor 3) Lobby areas Lobby areas present a prime opportunity to observe business development meetings. It can be relatively simple to get someone to agree to get off of the show floor and take a nice comfortable seat for a sales meeting. I would like to claim that these are \u201csales conversations\u201d but as we shall see in a moment, some are anything but conversations. In the case of this particular event, I focused on lobby area observations because there simply wasn\u2019t much going on in the booth area and well, the bar stuff is pretty much the same stuff over and over, although it does reign supreme for market intel consisting of rumors, speculations and well, just plain weird behavior. Meeting a friend who happens to be a pretty bright guy\/ geo-political expert\/general all-around good fellow, we staked out the end of a sofa and pulled up a chair. We had been talking for only a few minutes when Suzy Sales Gal sits down with her \u201cmark,\u201d er, I mean, \u201cprospect.\u201d After a few minutes of my friend and I trying have a conversation, we gave up. Our conversation was simply no match for Suzy\u2019s decibel level. Our conversation clearly over, we turned to watch the carnival (there is a reason those guys along the carnival midway were referred to as \u201cbarkers\u201d) next to us. Here are a few observations from Suzy\u2019s meeting with \u201cMark\u201d: Suzy was very well trained by her company. She must have been because she used so many buzz words and acronyms that there is no doubt they could have only come from a big marketing department. Unfortunately, \u201cMark,\u201d as we shall refer to the prospect, had not been included in the corporate training and therefore had no idea whatsoever what she was talking about. Suzy was very well trained by her sales manager. Or a samurai fighter, not sure which. Mark would lean back, she would lean in. Mark would make a statement and she would agree (EVERY time). Mark would raise his voice loud enough to be heard over the noise and she would raise hers 20 fold. Mark would look at his watch and start to say something and she would jump right in and tell him more. She was very well skilled in the art of \u201cYell and Tell.\u201d Suzy probably attended one of those sales training programs that state, \u201cAll buyers are liars,\u201d so she simply chose not to let Mark talk. Good of her to protect his honor like that. Suzy knew all about features and benefits. OK, I am just assuming she did, I really have no idea what she was selling and I am pretty sure Mark didn\u2019t either! Suzy may have trained with Ringling Brothers in their game alley. She knew how to rope the guy in and get him to sit down; she just forgot that he was there to have a conversation. And no matter how much he tried, Suzy was not going to let that happen. The following day, back in another lobby area, I was introduced (OK, I was eavesdropping but don\u2019t blame me because it\u2019s another \u201cyell and tell\u201d example) to John as he meets with his prospect who we will call \u201cBuddy,\u201d because Buddy is a people pleaser and will listen to anyone talk. Doesn\u2019t matter that Buddy doesn\u2019t have any idea\/plan\/desire to buy anything. Here are a few keen insights gleaned from their time together: John is a very bright and well informed guy. Just ask him. He\u2019s not shy. Simply listen to him for 30 seconds and you will know how smart he is because that\u2019s where the conversation will end up going. Buddy smiled and laughed along. Buddy likes to hang out with John. Buddy likes to hang out with anybody. John is very connected. Just listen for 30 more seconds and John names every major player and intimates that they are all his friends. Buddy smiles more. John works on big deals, spends big money and is powerful. You get the picture by now. John has a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1866],"tags":[1979],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13933,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13931\/revisions\/13933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"TradeShowIdealCandidate\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/TradeShowIdealCandidate-300x198.jpg\")
Tradeshows and conferences. For that perfect combination of \u201centertainment and education,\u201d you really can\u2019t beat tradeshows and conferences. Bring a few thousand (or more) salespeople together with a few hundred (or less, or a lot less) potential prospects and the show is a pretty good one. Similar to what you might witness when one ambulance pulls up in front of a building full of lawyers. If you take the time and give yourself permission to be a spectator vs. participant just for a little while, tradeshows\/conferences can be pretty entertaining. And sad. Mostly funny. But sad. But funny\u2026<\/p>\n